


No Shotgun

by Empatheia



Category: Air Master (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Dubious Consent, F/F, F/M, Fix-It, Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:08:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28353684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Empatheia/pseuds/Empatheia
Summary: Maki tries to figure out her future after the scary mistake she's made.
Relationships: Aikawa Maki/Nakanotani Mina, Aikawa Maki/Sakamoto Giulietta
Kudos: 4





	No Shotgun

**Author's Note:**

> Obligatory brief fix-it fic for the TERRIBLE ending of the manga, which this obviously refers to a lot, so if you'd like to read it, here are some basic spoilers:
> 
> [SPOILERS]
> 
> [CAUTION]
> 
> \- Maki, who has spent the entire series up until this last minute being disgusted by Giulietta (yes, that's the canonical spelling of his name, it's written out several times in the manga) and scared of him and angry at him and flatly refusing his every overture a) tells Giulietta she likes him back and b) basically lets him successfully assault her, refraining from destroying him until after he's done  
> \- this extremely ill-advised and dubiously consensual one-night stand results in a pregnancy  
> \- Maki meets her unborn daughter in a dream, which is very plausible in-verse because ghosts and spirits are real and Renge has actual powers that NEVER GET USED  
> \- she then goes to school and hugs her friends, whom we haven't seen in almost eight volumes, and tells them she loves them and will definitely protect them  
> \- the end
> 
> [END SPOILERS] 
> 
> I still really love this manga on the whole but I hated that ending a lot, so... fix-it fic. You know how it goes.

Unfortunately for Maki, the high wears off.

She wakes up the morning after the morning after, gets halfway through her morning routine, and stops still in the doorway out of the bathroom. Stops, and realizes that she feels a bit sick.

She hasn't gone to visit Giulietta in the hospital. She... doesn't think she's going to. 

Back there, in hell, it had seemed to make so much sense: how lonely he was, how strange and violent, how he reminded her of herself. How she'd wanted to comfort him, the way she had been comforted. How she'd wanted to reassure him that he could be loved and thus reassure herself of the same. 

A real part of her had also been honestly curious about what it would be like; she wasn't used to that sort of attention, and it had made her blood race, in the moment. 

She hadn't hated it, she supposes. It had hurt, but she doesn't hate pain, either. It had felt good to drown in his devotion for a little while.

But now she's awake, and the world is real again, and she feels a little bit sick.

She knows she's her father's daughter, in so many ways. Her bloodlust, her simple love of the fight, her tendency to run face-first into things that would really benefit from five seconds of sober thought. At least he'd had the decency to ask her mother to marry him _before_ he got her knocked up in high school. Maki hadn't even thought that far ahead.

Maki draws a deep breath and lets it go very slowly, sinking down the side of the bathroom door as she does so, until she sits on the floor in the doorway staring at nothing. Her hand still rests over her belly. She remembers that dream as clearly as she does the reality of the battle royale. Her daughter. Her _daughter_.

_Not yet_ , she thinks. _I'm not ready yet. Please._

It's probably her imagination, but she almost hears a whispered response: _Well, say when, I guess._

Feeling somewhat better, she eventually rises and makes her way to school.

x

She expects Mina to come find her after her big group-hug confession, and she does.

Renge finds her first, though.

"Hey, Maki-chan?" Renge asks, sucking noisily on a lemon drop. "How come you're haunted?"

"Wh--" Maki stammers. _Haunted?_ But she's killed all the Byoubou spirits--

Renge nods sagely. "Yeah. A girl. She kinda feels like you. Your mom or something?"

Freezing, Maki automatically puts a hand over her belly, working hard to calm her suddenly galloping heart. She'd managed to half-convince herself that all that was nothing more than dreams and imagination, but if Renge can see it...

Belatedly, it occurs to her that Byoubou would've been easier to handle if she'd had Renge on hand to keep track of what was actually going on. She would never want to expose Renge to that kind of danger, or any of her friends, for that matter, but... ghosts were real, and dangerous. She might just have to keep that in mind for the future.

"What!? What!? What!?" Renge screeches, staring at her hand. "YOU--"

Swiftly, Maki scoops her up and clamps a hand over her mouth, panicking. She's not _ready_. 

"Renge-chan, please," she begs. "Don't tell anyone. Not yet. I'm... I'm still figuring things out."

Renge's eyes narrow over her hand, head twisted up to look her in the eye. She pushes Maki's hand off her mouth. "Is it that creepy guy who stalks you and stuff? She kind of looks like him, too, the more I look."

Maki groans as her face turns fiery red. She feels that twist of nausea in her gut again, reminded. "I... uh, yeah. It was... stupid. Kind of spur of the moment. Please, Renge-chan."

Renge's eyes have widened to take up half her face. She looks both fascinated and repulsed, which Maki wholeheartedly understands. Her own feelings almost exactly.

It takes Renge a few minutes to think about it. For the duration, Maki holds her close, rocking her slightly as she might have done Miori, if she'd learned of Miori's existence early enough to be a proper big sister to her from the start. She squeezes Renge's little body tight until Renge starts making noises of protest, then loosens up awkwardly. 

She really doesn't know what to do with herself right now. What a mess she's made. Her skillset doesn't apply to any of this, really. There's no enemy to fight. No one to intimidate. No walls to climb or shatter down to dust. Just her and her friends and her future and... this.

Finally, Renge sighs and squirms around in her arms to face her. She claps her pudgy little hands to either side of Maki's face and says very sternly, "Okay. But I'm not gonna lie, okay? I'm not good at it. So you gotta tell the others soon as you can."

"Tell the others what?" says a soft, timid voice at Maki's elbow.

She jumps. She'd been so focused on Renge--

"M-Mina-chan," she stammers, off-balance all over again. "I-- Uh."

Mina begins to look worried. Her big dark eyes get even bigger, her soft little mouth turns downward at the corners, a little furrow appears between her brows. 

Suddenly, all Maki can do is look at her. She barely feels it when Renge wriggles out of her grip and makes a tidy three-point landing on the dirt at her feet. Her whole attention is fixed on Mina. 

In her own way, Mina has stalked her a little, too, but it strikes Maki now how different it always felt from the towering, berserk threat of Giulietta. Mina has never had the power to hurt her, let alone the will to do so. She has just... wanted, openly and with great determination. If Maki had ever told her no, she feels certain Mina would have respected that, through all her floods of broken-hearted tears.

The first time Giulietta had tried to lay hands on her -- Maki still vividly remembers the dull ripping of her shirt, the sudden chill of open air on her exposed chest, his _eyes_ \-- it was Mina she'd found comfort in, afterwards. Mina's hot, panicked embrace, Mina's confused tears on her behalf.

How many times has Mina cheered her on from the sidelines, yelling herself hoarse to be heard over the crowd? How many times has Mina remained steady in her devotion when Maki showed her some terrible, frightening aspect of her monstrous inner self? She can't see herself as Mina sees her, and that's why Maki needs her, she thinks. 

Giulietta only really loves the Air Master, Maki knows now. The monster within her, twin to his own. That's something, but...

But Mina loves _her_ , awkward human being and Air Master and all the rest in between.

There are tears pouring down her face, she realizes, and hastily wipes them away with the back of her wrist, but it's too late.

"Maki-chan?" Mina whispers, dainty hands reaching out to hover around her elbows. "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

Did something _happen?_ Maki doesn't even know how to begin to answer that. 

"Um," she says instead. "I don't... really want to talk about it here. Could you come over after school? Miori should be at the dojo, she's got practice."

It warms something deep inside Maki's innards, the way Mina lights up at the idea. She beams, and blushes, and Maki suddenly wants to hug her. More than hug her. 

Later.

x

Then it's later, and Maki still doesn't know what to do.

She's sitting on the edge of her spare single bed, and Mina is sitting beside her, waiting patiently. What should she say? How should she explain this? How _can_ she explain this? 

Mina takes her hand and squeezes it, and somehow, haltingly, she finds the words.

The grip on her hand becomes almost painfully tight as she makes her way through the whole bizarre and sordid tale, but again: pain is a friend of hers, and she welcomes it now. It reminds her of Mina's presence, anchors her to the real world where fighting isn't all there is.

"So, uh, yeah," she finishes awkwardly. "I might be pregnant? And I don't know what to do, except that I can't--" The realization hits her softly, but with immense weight. She hadn't really thought it through before this, since she was trying to deny it was happening at all. "I... can't raise a kid with _him_." 

"Of course you can't!" Mina burst out. When had she started crying? "That-- That-- That _villain!_ Taking advantage of you when you're vulnerable--" 

She cuts herself suddenly short, and Maki can guess why: they both remember the hotel, after she'd rescued Mina from Kitaeda Kinjirou's gang. How Mina had "taken advantage" herself, while Maki was unconscious and unresisting.

"It's different, Mina-chan," she says softly.

"Is it?" Mina asks, miserable, unable to meet her eyes. "Is it really? I never apologized, because I hoped you didn't remember, but I knew you did. Maki-chan, I'm sorry."

Unable to help herself, Maki leans over and wraps her arms around Mina, resting her chin on Mina's dark, glossy head. She sighs with relief. It feels so good to hold Mina again. It feels like it's been months, though she thinks it's actually been less than a week, if she adds up the days. The battle royale seemed to stretch into infinity, unmoored from the mundane time of the rest of the world. Coming back has been jarring.

"It's all right," she murmurs. "Just... ask next time, okay?"

"Okay," Mina mumbles into her clavicle, damp with tears. "I promise. Can... Can I still hate that man?"

Maki laughs and squeezes her until she squeaks. "Yeah. He deserves it. Anyway, what I meant to say is, I can't raise a kid with him... but if I really am pregnant, I think I want to keep it anyway. I'll figure something out."

"I'll help you," Mina says immediately, earnest as the rising sun. "Whatever you need, whatever I can do... I'll be there, Maki-chan. If that's okay? If you'll let me?"

She thinks about it. She thinks about it very seriously. It would be very difficult by herself, with only the slender allowance provided by her father and no job. She could quit school and find work, but without a high school diploma, she's unlikely to find much that pays very well without asking for things she isn't willing to put on the table. 

Mina could solve all of that with a wave of her hand, if she felt so inclined, but Maki isn't entirely comfortable with the power imbalance inherent in that. She'd want to give something back to Mina, to make it feel more equal. Or...

"Mina-chan," she says carefully, slowly. "Would you maybe like to raise it with me? It's okay if n--"

She doesn't get to finish the caveat, because Mina has thrown her arms around Maki's neck and is squeezing so tightly she can't get the words out. If not for how careful Mina's being to respect Maki's consent, Maki thinks, she'd probably be getting kissed to within an inch of her life right now. 

She's a little disappointed that she isn't. 

"Would you really let me?" Mina asks, almost weeping into her ear. "Would you--"

"Yeah," Maki interrupts, feeling suddenly very secure in her conviction. "Something like this... I trust you more than anyone."

Mina abruptly pulls away, wiping furiously at her eyes, and arranges her surreal series of curves into a formal kneeling position on Maki's bed. Schooling her face to some measure of poise, she inclines her upper body to a precise degree, hands neatly arranged on her thighs.

"Maki-chan," she says, voice still a little unsteady but her entire heart bare within it, "will you marry me?"

Flabbergasted, Maki can only stare at her for a minute. She thinks of her father, and his tales of her mother, and Miori's mother, and then dozens of other women he's blithely propositioned. He's a disaster, she thinks, a terrible father and a useless human being, but he did really love her mother, and he does really love her and Miori. Maybe it isn't always the worst idea to jump into things face-first.

She pictures Mina holding her daughter, beaming down at her curious little face like she's the most beautiful thing Mina has ever seen, if only second to her mother. She pictures Mina carefully changing her diapers, feeding her bottled mush with a soft little rubber spoon, playing hide and seek. She pictures Mina being her _wife_ , caring for her and their daughter, nourishing and protecting their little family with unyielding devotion. It's so easy to picture all of it. A whole future, unfolding like a vista as the morning fog burns off in the sun.

"Okay," she says.

There doesn't seem to be much need for more words, after that. 

When Mina cradles her face and yearns upwards, it's the easiest thing in the world to meet her halfway and kiss her back. She's so soft, but so determined, like a freight train made entirely of sweet-scented pillows. 

Maki loops Mina's long black hair through her fingers, tugging very gently. Mina moans into her mouth, desperately sensitive and bursting with months of unfulfilled yearning. Her hands are everywhere, restlessly touching everything within reach as if confirming that Maki's really here, in her arms, kissing her back. 

It's so endearing it hurts.

As Maki lets her tip them over, she realizes how differently she feels now than she had just a few minutes ago.

Her future has shifted off the dead-end track she'd been hurtling down. She doesn't know exactly where it's going now, but she thinks it might be somewhere really nice. 

They'll be all right. The three of them. 

X

**Author's Note:**

> I left it here because I can't really do kidfic or sappy slice-of-life but just imagine a lot of that going forward and hopefully you'll feel better.


End file.
